The All Blacks' aura no longer frightens Ireland, according to Keith Earls.
There was a time that the sight of the world-famous jersey was enough to rattle Irish teams, who knew that a hammering was more or likely about to be dished out.
Earls was 21 when he faced New Zealand for the first time in 2008 - in only his second Test cap at Lansdowne Road. Ireland lost 22-3, which was a better result than the 60-0 drubbing in Hamilton four years later.
But things have changed. After coming so close to beating the All Blacks for the first time in 2013, Ireland managed to do it in 2106 and repeated the trick last November.
"Look, we all know it's going to be a massive challenge, but in the back of our heads, the aura they bring, we're not going to be scared of that," said Earls.
"We know it's going to be a huge challenge but we know that if we get things right we are capable of beating them.
"When you're a kid and you see the Haka and everything, you see the black jersey and they're the best players in the world...even now, you want to test yourself to see if you're capable of hanging on with the best players in the world.
"And on a good day, it's unbelievably satisfying."
This All Blacks team is the least experienced one that Earls has faced, and he has done that on five occasions. He missed the Chicago win but played in the last one.
"Obviously one or two results haven't gone their way in the last couple of years," said the Munster winger.
"But you can see the games they probably should have lost where they pulled something out of the hat, and they've beaten teams, they've beaten them unbelievably well.
"So they're entitled to an off-day as well but on some of their off-days, they still win games."
But while World Cup fever is building back home ahead of this game, Earls is happy to be blissfully unaware.
"No, I genuinely don't know what the buzz is at home," he admitted. "I hear it's negative as well at times.
"But I don't want to get distracted by it. I know it's maybe cheesy, but I know my kids are excited, my wife is excited, but that's about it".
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